Chester, Pennsylvania

Chester is a city in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. It was known as Mecoponaca to the Native Americans, and its first settlers were from New Sweden; it was originally called "Finlandia" and later "Upland", and the Swedish settlers built Fort Mecoponaca in 1641. By 1682, Upland was the most prosperous town in Pennsylvania, and, that same year, William Penn renamed the city after the city of Chester, Cheshire in England. Chester was the county seat of Chester County from 1682 to 1788, when West Chester became the new county seat, and Chester became the county seat of the new Delaware County. By the mid-1800s, textile mills and factories had proliferated in Chester, and Chester became a city on 14 February 1866. World War I brought Chester its first massive growth, with people migrating to Chester for manufacturing jobs. Between 1910 and 1920, the city's population increased by 20,000, owing to the influx of Southern and Eastern Europeans and African-Americans from the American South, but rapid growth led to racial violence. As early as the 1960s, it began to lose its shipyard and automobile manufacturing jobs, causing the population to rapidly decline. By the 1980s, Chester was bereft of industry, and many bottom-rung projects were initiated in Chester, including a trash incineration plant, a sewage treatment plant, and a prison. By 1995, it was a financially distressed municipality. The city was also known for its corruption, having an ages-old Republican political machine and Mafia influences. Crime in Chester is 114% higher than in the rest of Philadelphia and 330% greater than the rest of the nation, and crime, violence, and economic hardships are a part of daily life. In 2016, Chester had a population of 33,988 people.